Great Vacation, Great Book!

We just got back from a great time on vacation at Rehoboth Beach, DE. What a great place to relax! It’s good for singles, but great for families. We always have a wonderful time. We lay on the beach all day, sunning and wave jumping, out past the breakers. I love to jog on the beach, and then go into the ocean for a cool-off swim. We love to park our car and not move it for 5 days! There are so many places to eat and shop, and the alleys between streets are filled with lovely flowers, great shops and cafes, and even water bowls for the ever-present pups. You can rent bicycles and pedal to other nearby beach communities, too. Each one has a different ‘flavor’, and they are all good!

There are and lots and lots of galleries and craft shops, and - you guessed it – endless hand-crafted jewelry to see and enjoy! That’s always part of my exploration when I go on vacation. At Browseabout Books on Rehoboth Ave, I picked up a great new book that I recommend highly; Joanna Gollberg’s The Ultimate Jeweler’s guide – The Illustrated Reference of Techniques, Tools, and Materials. I thought it was the perfect souvenir for my vacation. I love Gollberg’s books. They are always chock full of great color photos, and packed with lots of information. This one covers all the basic details and specs of precious and base metals, solders, and even mining ethics, then moves on to a wide selection of basic tools, full of great photos and info about ways to use them, and even how to make some of your own. She continues through all of the basic jewelry-making techniques, from cold-connections through fabrication, forming, texturing, stone setting, and finishing. This book is just perfect for beginners and still full of info for the experienced metal worker. I learned a lot just from a quick skim, and I think my jewelry students will love it! It’s an easy book to browse through and read, and with its spiral spine, it will stay open on your bench while you follow the techniques. I think this one’s destined to be a classic, second only to Tim McCreight’s Complete Metalsmith.

Well, I'm back now, and YEOW!! I can’t work in this mess. Mess-clearing has been my summer, but that's another story. It’s time to clean off my bench, and get some making done!

Wholesale and Retail and Dares - Oh My!

In my seemingly endless quest to find ways to make an income through jewelry, I have decided to do something that feels inherently daring to me, and investigate wholesale venues!

I have been thinking about wholesale for a very long time. I had a great catch-up call with an old friend recently, and conversation turned to her store, a wonderful herb shop in southern California called In Harmony Herbs and Spices. It’s in Ocean Beach, San Diego, for any of you who have the opportunity to visit. Jodi is amazing, so completely knowledgeable, and she works so hard to make her shop a place her customers love to visit. She has been carrying jewelry for some time, and we soon began to plan what kind of jewelry I might make for her shop. Whew! This feels a lot less daring to me. What a great way for me to keep in touch with a good friend, and ease into wholesale jewelry at the same time!

This brings up so many different questions. Are my retail prices in line with my making a profit at wholesale prices? What kinds of pieces do I begin with? Which of my pieces lend themselves to the kind of production work that would be necessary for establishing standard pieces, sizes and prices? Because the shop owner is my friend, I am even more motivated for this collaboration to work out well. I find myself asking, can I squeeze my prices a little lower to make them more affordable for both wholesale and retail buyers? Can I streamline any of my production methods to decrease time, and create lower prices that way? Wholesale really causes a person to evaluate their work and practices differently!

We settled on starting out with a few different earring designs. I plan to start wholesaling with one line, keep things flexible, adjust, and add lines as I go. Will I really dare wholesale? I sure plan to - next stop, some earring designs to go!

It's been a while!

Feb 14 2010,Happy Valentine’s Day!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have posted last! I guess I haven’t figured out how to fit blogging into my regular schedule. A year seems like a long hiatus, no? But it’s been a good year, full of many happy things, and lots of jewelry fun and sales.

I love teaching metalsmith classes at the Garden of Beadin in Bartonsville, PA, and classes are going strong. I like it so much that I have been dreaming of finding new places to teach. Maybe something will turn up soon. I had begun teaching classes at a wonderful new shop (for me), My Father’s Beads, In Coopersburg, PA. Sadly for me, they are closing soon. I will miss the owner, Jeri, and the people I was beginning to meet and know there.

Here are some samples I made in a great workshop I took last fall, with Janna Gregonis. Steeling Kisses is an example of the Korean art of Po Mak San Dum. First, make a nice sharp chisel. Then, chisel an intricate pattern in steel sheet. Finally, hammer in some metal foil. Anything from 24K gold foil to colored candy foil will do. That’s how Steeling Kisses got its name: Mild steel combined with Hershey’s Kiss foil! (Extra perk – you get to eat the kisses.) Here, another pair of earrings for a friend’s gift, this time with 24K gold foil.

Below, some Keum bu earrings from the same weekend, 24 K gold foil heat bonded to sterling silver. Janna taught keum bu with both a hot plate and a torch. I have done keum bu before with a hot plate, but I didn’t want to have to buy and store yet one more piece of equipment. I just loved learning how to do keum bu with a torch! It was right up my alley, and helped avoid a case of hot-hand. Now, if only the cost of 2 K gold foil would drop. Ha!

On TV!!!

OK, now that it's all over I'm just SOOOO excited! But I'd better start back at the beginning. A few months ago, I sent an email to my college alumni correspondent. I found out that she lives in my town, and edits a local business journal, so I contacted her to say hello. When she found out that I make silver jewelry, she asked me if I would do a presentation for a group she is a member of - the Monroe County Earth Science Association. They go on gem and fossil digs, share mineral samples, discuss earthquakes, and are interested in all manner of earth science based careers. Apparently, they had been hoping to find a silversmith to do a presentation for the group. Well, I teach Earth Science, and my daughter is a major rock hound, so it sounded like the perfect match.

Over the last few weeks, I considered how to go about this presentation. Intro, a bit about silver, pass some stuff around, show some of my work. Zzzzzzzzz. What about a demo? Everybody loves fire, right? Can I bring a torch with me? Sure, said the library. If the fire alarms sound that night, we'll just shut them off again. Go right ahead.

I was a little tense as I pulled up to the library the night of the meeting. I asked my daughter to say something so I wouldn't be nervous. She said, "Mom, you are an intelligent, educated person. You have nothing to worry about." Huh?? WHO was this in the car with me? No child I've ever met! My darling Rick showed up to help out and support me. I was covered.

So, in we went. I talked about how to harden silver with a hammer, and how to soften it again with a torch, and then I went about hardening and softening some silver while I demonstrated how I make a leaf pendant for them. I had a great time. I must be a natural ham. It wasn't until halfway through that I saw the camera. I can't believe I had forgotten - my contact had told me the local cable station might come out to film that night! I had been sure they wouldn't show up. As it turned out, not only did they film, but I even got a private interview afterward! I was on TV!!! I was on cloud 9. (I was on TV!!) I don't know when the show will air. (I was on TV!!) I never even found out what show I was on. But heck, I was on TV!!! (I must be famous!) My 15 minutes of fame, at last.

Forging Ahead

I had a fun time I had teaching my February metals class. The subject was basic forging, and the goal was to create a sterling silver neck ring and a sterling silver cuff bracelet in 3 hours. It was tight, but everyone did a great job! We practiced on copper first, to get the feel of the hammer and the metal, and then we switched to silver. The sounds of metal on metal could be heard throughout the store, the sound of a happy class hard at work. Just look at them go, hammering away, helping one another out. Here's Diane, proudly modeling her new copper neck ring with the pierced tree pendant she made in our first class. Many who missed that first class would like to try it now! Like all of the students, she did a great job!

I have been really busy planning for future classes, writing lists of materials to order, developing project ideas and creating sample pieces. If I can get of my ideas off the ground, maybe the time will be right for some second level classes. How cool would that be? Already, I’m preparing to make a pitch for getting a torch in the room. First comes annealing, so we can move more metal. I think fusing isn’t far behind. And I hear there have been some requests for soldering!!! Big happy face here! We’ll start seeing some interesting projects from these classes, I think. Can’t wait!

Finally -- Off and Running at 1000 Markets!

Whew! Finally, I'm waiting for approval to go public with with Silver Vine Jewelry on the web at 1000 Markets! Even as easy as www.1000Markets.com makes it, it still takes time and energy to upload all of your photos and descriptions, and learn your way around a new site. I'm having fun organizing my work into collections, and my Leaf Collection is getting filled out first.

I can tell I'm going to love it here! Everyone is friendly and personable, and the shops are wonderful. I keep getting distracted by the variety of fascinating hand crafts produced by craftsmen and artists from all across the nation. I really want wone of the amazing artistically knitted hats I saw - I've never seen anything like them before! Browsing around is so easy with the "browse" tab just staring at me from the top of the page, and before I know it, another hour has passed, and I have barely begun to post my pieces!

Well, it's time to get back to posting. But wait, there was a beautiful watercolor I saw just a few minutes ago, I wonder what else she paints.....

Pierced!!

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and have I been busy!!! My first jewelry teaching gig is behind me, and the next is coming up fast. I am so lucky to have found Meredith and Cherie, at The Garden of Beadin', our local bead shop (if you're in the Poconos, that is). They are warm and friendly, just great to work with. Cherie's lovely little shop is a perfect place to take classes in jewelry making. My classes in cold connections for jewelry have been warmly recieved. I can tell I'm going to like it here. Our first class, held Jan 10, was a piercing class. It covered the basics of using a jeweler's saw, and piercing a pattern into metal by drilling a hole inside the pattern. Students learned how to thread and hold a jeweler's saw, how follow a pattern, and how to use a light touch. I am so proud of them! Conversations, questions, and amazingly few broken saw blades, an incredible feat for a first experience. I was very impressed as dragonflies, trees, wolves, and more emerged from under their saws. Everyone walked away with a copper or silver pendant to be proud of.

Our next class will be held on Feb 7, and I will be teaching basic forging while we make bracelets and neck rings to hang our pendants from. I really enjoyed teaching the class. It's quite a different experience from being a student, and I can't wait for the next class. I have posted a few of the pieces that I made as class samples. Before class, I readied another pendant that had a scattering of viney leaves on it. I pounded it with a rawhide hammer to help harden the silver when it was complete. Well, my wonky, misshappen hammer hit that piece at some weird angle, shot it off the workbench, and I haven't seen it since. Oh well, some day in the future a beautiful, dusty, viney disc will appear from out of the sawdust, and I'll be back in business, ready for a new groupof students!